UK condemns Israeli decision to expand control over West Bank

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK strongly criticized a decision by Israel’s security cabinet to expand Israeli control over the West Bank, warning that the move risks undermining peace and stability and breaches international law.

“The UK strongly condemns the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision yesterday to expand Israeli control over the West Bank,” a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Monday in a statement.

They said the proposals involved significant changes affecting land, enforcement and administrative powers in the occupied territory and cautioned that these would have damaging consequences.

“The major changes to land, enforcement, and administrative powers proposed in the West Bank will harm efforts to advance peace and stability," the statement said.

“The UK has been clear: any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic make-up of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law. We call on Israel to reverse these decisions immediately," it added.

“A two-state solution remains the only viable path to long-term peace with a safe and secure Israel living alongside a viable and sovereign Palestine,” it said.

Israel’s security cabinet approved measures Sunday aimed at altering the legal and civil framework in the occupied West Bank to strengthen Israeli control.

The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said the decisions include repealing a law that barred the sale of land in the West Bank to Israeli private individuals, unsealing land ownership records, and shifting authority for building permits in a settlement bloc near Hebron from a Palestinian municipality to Israel’s civil administration.